The InBetween
by Wangan
Summary: Krillin, caught in an explosion at Capsule Corp, finds himself far away from home in a place that doesn't wish him well. DBZCanon/Xenoverse cross. (Just putting this here for posterity.)
1. Chapter 1

_Tuesday._

Not many people noticed the well-built man who was flying through the sky above West City. Those that did paid him little attention even though his red shirt and black vest stood out against the clear blue midday sky like a spot of red wine on a white tablecloth. Krillin didn't mind the lack of attention or more specifically didn't care. His mind was less on the attention he was or wasn't receiving and more on the errand he was running for his wife, Android 18.

His destination was quite close and as he closed in, he swooped down low and buzzed the Capsule Corp wall before setting down on the central path. He took a moment to settle himself before making his way to the entrance. Over the many years the monk had been here, it never failed to amaze him just how little the International corporation's headquarters had changed over time. West City was a place of skyscrapers and big apartments, and Capsule Corp's barely altered yellow half-sphere of a building looked positively antique in comparison. Now that he thought about it, Mr. Briefs had mentioned something about sentimental value in the building and property. He wasn't sure what exactly he'd said but it was something along those lines.

Mentally shrugging, he checked the chest pocket of his vest and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the comfortable weight of the DynoCaps case. Yeah, had he forgotten it...Well, that meant going back to the house to face his wife.

His pregnant wife. A nervous shiver ran up his spine at the thought. He was going to be a father and it was probably one of the most terrifying things he was going to face in the near future.

However for the present, 18 was the most terrifying thing to face. The thought of her beautiful blue eyes narrowed at him put a little extra speed in his step as he made his way inside. A receptionist smiled at him as he stopped at the main desk and she waved he through with a smile. "Mister Briefs and his daughter are in the workshop, sir." Krillin was aware that his friends and him were pretty much on a short list of people who could come in to see the CEO and his family without an appointment. Still, it was a matter of courtesy. He didn't even need the directions. He was so familiar with the Ki presence of Bulma at this point that he could find her in a crowd, much less her house.

Passing by the Atrium, he walked through the doors of this workshop and nearly crashed into a pile of equipment with legs. Hopping to the side to get out of the way, he was able to see who owned the legs behind the wall.

"Oh, Sorry about that, my boy." apologized as he passed by, the items bundled in his arms clattering with each step. "Didn't see where I was going."

"It's fine." Krillin chuckled, slightly amazed that a man of Doctor Briefs' age was able to carry that much weight. "Need any help?"

His offer was refused with a shake of the head. "Nope, I got it. Needed to make some space for my daughter. Come along, Scratch." The last part was directed at the black cat that was an ever present companion of the Doctor. Normally on the man's shoulder, it padded past the Monk with hardly a glance in his direction. Just before it caught up on the elderly man's heels, it hopped up to his shoulder and curled there.

Krillin paused slightly, considering it. How old was that cat by now? He couldn't remember the first time he'd seen it... Probably on the day he'd met Mr. Briefs. Those two were never apart.

"Damnit. This shouldn't have... unless..." The monk heard Bluma before he entered. When he did see her, the blue haired woman was looking between a blueprint and a huge hunk of complecated machinery about as wide as he was tall and twice as much, pencil scribbling something on a clipboard held in one arm. Her short cut hair was pinned back with a hairband and her drity overalls told him that she was pretty much arms deep in a project. She stopped writing for a moment, her hand waving absently back and forth behind her, reaching and missing a cup of coffee perched ontop of a bank of computing equipment that had uses beyond Krillin's guessing. Her fingers found the mug's handle and quickly brought the drink to her lips and one quick sip later, she almost tossed the mug back to where it had been sitting in her haste to finish writing whatever she'd been working on.

At the sound of the automatic doors closing, she looked up and turned to him and a frustrated grimace that he hadn't been able to see from his angle melted away. "Oh, Hey Krillin!" Standing up from her seat, she walked over the somewhat cluttered floor and greeted him with a hug. "So nice to see you. What're you doing here?"

"Good to see you as well." Krillin returned the hug with a firm but gentle one of his own. "I kinda came to see you and about getting a capsule set upgrade." When he released the hug, his eyes glanced over to the complicated block of machinery. "Unless you're busy right now..."

He faded as the look of frustration came back over the young inventor's face, combined with the grease and sweat streaks on her face. "Please." She scoffed. "I always have time for my friends. Espically when I need a moment to relax." Her glare turned back to the object of her ire and Krillin thought it wise not to bring it up anymore. His look must've asked for him though.

"The time machine." She explained

The monk blinked before looking back to the hunk of metal. "Wait, like that one future Trunks came back in?"

"The very same, I rebuilt the one Cell had come back in but not before taking a bunch of notes. The engine is pretty much what you see here but...I think I might've missed something. It's consuming more energy than the original power plant can provide."

Krillin nodded, not understanding but deciding not to dig himself into a hole by saying so as the inventor continued. "It's been so frustrating...I might as well go back the the genetics I'd been working on." She continued, giving the block of mechanics a sneer that was Vegeta worthy in it's contempt.

The monk frowned. "Genetics?"

"Well…" The question immediately brightened Bulma's mood as she gave him her characteristic wink she always did when she felt she was on the fast track of doing something amazing. "I realized something after Chi-Chi gave birth to Goten that for an alien species, Saiyans can easily somehow reproduce with humans. I can only assume that if there were any Saiyan women left the opposite would be the same and what was bothering me about it was the obvious question of how. I mean, somehow Gohan was able to have those power surges that put him on a level above the others for a short time and Piccolo told us how he was able to injure Raditz badly enough in a single blow and that's leaving out how he was able to lay into Cell hard enough to make him spit up 18."

It was one of those things on a VERY long list Krillin would never forget. An 11 year old boy, Saiyan or not was kicking Cell's behind, an organism that had taken a Destructo Disc to the neck without a flinch. Even Frieza had lost his tail to that technique. "So...what? Are you trying to figure out how strong a half-saiyan could be?"

She motioned over to another set of machines with another, though slightly smaller, bank of computer monitors that again covered the wall. Attached directly right to the monitors was a countertop-sized part of the machine that had several glass beakers and vials that were all interconnected by winding clear plastic tubes that were rushing different colored liquids and chemicals from container to container. "No, actually. Well...Maybe. But my main goal is to figure out how we are even genetically compatible in the first place. I mean, it's kinda improbable when you think about it. Besides the tails, a saiyan could be on Earth and no one would look at the funny and we even thought the tail was just a curious oddity before Raditz showed up. And yet we have three half-saiyans around without any disabilities or deformities. So I've been analyzing blood samples from Vegeta and Trunks to see what makes them...different."

By the time she was done, Krillin's mouth was hanging wide open. "How on Earth were you able to get Vegeta to agree to that?" He wouldn't have guessed in a million years the Vegeta would willingly sign up for that, no matter what the reason or who was asking.

"Believe it or not, Vegeta came to me." It probably showed on his face he didn't believe her. "I actually got the sample from when Goku was suffering from the heart virus. Vegeta was…" She paused, considering her words. "I won't say scared but nervous about a disease that could kill a Super Saiyan so easily."

That actually made a terrible amount of sense. The idea of anything that could bring down Goku was a chilling thought that made bumps rise on his skin but until the day he saw his best friend clutching his chest in that fight with 19 he'd never have guessed that anyone or anything much less a virus could bring the man down. He could only imagine what Vegeta might have thought being the only other pure blood Saiyan on the planet.

"Anyway," She began with a snap of her fingers, looking back to him and holding her hand out to take the case that he'd forgotten he'd been holding. "You need an upgrade? Our stores could do this for you."

Krillin rubbed a hand through his hair as he bashfully handed the capsule set over. He kinda already knew that but he'd rather not stand in line. "Most of your shops have long wait lists at this time of day and I'm in a little bit of a hurry right now."

Bulma taking the case, opened it and sucked in air through her teeth as her read the registration code in the lid. "Jeez, forget about an upgrade. You need a new set. These are more than 15 years old. I could upgrade them but the amount of work to reset the items to new Capsules would take days for the small items to months for the larger items."

The short monk winced. While he currently had a job, he didn't have enough money to buy a whole new set of Capsules to replace the current set. On the other hand though, expired DynoCaps had a tendency to blow up especially the counterfeit Red Ribbon Army ones that were still floating around, even after all these years. "Well, 18 did mention something about getting some new ones but-"

"No 'buts', Krillin. Your wife is right." Bluma cut in, snapping the case shut and passing back to him. "It's cheaper to get some new ones and safer." Stepping over to her desk, she pressed a button and a microphone clicked to life. "Suzy, think you could bring in our new Frontier-15 Set?"

"Of course." The response was quick, so quick in fact that it took Krillin a moment to recognize the voice on the other end. The receptionist's voice. "The standard or the premium, Ma'am?"

"Premium, please. Thank you." The heiress said, lifting her finger off the button. "So how's she doing?"

The monk looked at Bluma confused, which was heightened even more when he saw the wide coy smile on her face. "Um...who? How's who doing?"

This time the frown was aimed at him. "Your wife, you dummy. I swear you fighters are all alike. Thick heads and no brains."

"Aww, that's not fair, Bluma." Krillin said, taking a step back. "To be honest, you weren't quite clear with that question."

"Who else would I be talking about?" A sly smile, crossed his friend's face and her tone turned had a mocking edge to it. "Unless there's more than one woman you're thinking about? Should I tell 18?"

"NO!" Krillin didn't mean to shout but he found every part of his body and mind retreat at the very idea. Even his hands shot up as if to fend off the nonexistant physical force of the thought. The hormonal period was just starting and he wasn't sure if it was the mechanical parts of her body were interfering or if it was because of her personality but Krillin had quickly learned that if she said to do something, do it. Immediately. Or else have a few Ki blasts shadowing your steps on the way out. If she EVER thought he was cheating on her. "She's fine. More than fine. Pregnant but fine. So fine in fact because I'm making sure she is. Everything's fine all fine."

The silence that followed hold only as long a Bluma was able to hold in her laughter. I.E. not long. A peal of giggles came from her and Krillin couldn't help the groan as he realized that she was kidding. "Don't kid about that Bulma, if 18 ever even thought for a moment I was even considering looking at another woman..." He shivered and struggled to ignore the overwhelming urge to look over his shoulder. He knew, just KNEW, that if he did, his wife would somehow be right behind him. "No amount of running would save me."

"Sorry. Just having a little bit of fun." She managed to squeeze out between chuckles. "How far along is she?"

What completely justified fear Krillin had on the idea of cheating on his soon-to-be wife melted away instantly at the thought of the life that they were building together. "A few months. Cravings have started and I think I've seen her eat more over these last few weeks than in the entire time I've known her."

"I remember when I was still carrying Trunks. Good grief, the things I ate." A sour look of recollection crossed the woman's fair face as if tasting something unpleasant. "I still can't look a cheesecake without feeling a little sick."

The monk privately wondered what she could've eaten that would cause such a reaction.

"Well, it's less crazy combinations of food and more like she'd eating at all, you know?"

Bluma did know. Having been behind the removal of the bomb from the late 16 and double checking 18, she'd been one of two - the second being her father- to ever work on Dr. Gero's creations. After removing the suicide bombs from both she'd been shocked and horrified all at once at just how little 'human' was left. She'd been the one to tell 18 that her reproductive system, specifically her ovaries, had been one of the few parts of her body left untouched by the procedures that changed her. One of the many MANY things taken from the young girl had been her sense of taste. In fact, the insidious scientist had, as a final bit of horribleness, locked away every kind of sensation in the androids except for the pain receptors and programed the mechanical parts of her brain to let off a burst of dopamine whenever they followed their programing to kill and destroy.

Thus making them prefect killing WMDs that felt a great deal of pleasure when doing their job. Bluma had undone as much of the damage as she could but taste was one of the few feelings she'd been unable to restore. 18 hadn't seen it as a detriment since she had no requirement to eat. But even with 18's rather unconcerned attitude of 'Take it or leave it' it still brought a chill to the inventor's spine whenever she through of how well Gero's deprativy had been thought out.  
That aside, she was happy that 18 was eating. "A necessary reaction. While her core can sustain her, the baby needs nutrition to be healthy. We can set up a diet plan for her unique needs. Let her know when you get back."

"Yeah, I think th-" Anything else that Krillin wanted to say was cut off as the automatic door hissed open and the receptionist came in holding a metal case about the size of a file and twice as thick as an average novel. "Here you are, Ma'am." Passing if over with what looked like a leather carrying bag. "Anything else?" She asked respectfully

"No, thank you, Suzy."

With a bow, the receptionist turned and left and so she didn't see how comically wide Krillin's eyes got at Bluma then passed the DynoCapse case and its bag over to him. "Wha-"

"A wedding gift." Bluma cut in. "I know its not official yet but...Well, its pretty obvious where this love train of yours is heading."

Krillin, touched and with slightly shaking hands took the case and flipped it open. "Holy-" was all he could choke out in his shock. A set of 50 DynoCaps started back at him, all screaming a price tag that equaled more money than he ever held at one time in his life. Every single one was the highest of quality items. Even a new house was included in the set. "I-But...just."

Bulma smiled at the monk's flabbergasted stammers and leaned against the computing console, not even noticing the forgotten cup of coffee slide just a little from its unsteady perch at the motion. "Even got you two a twin-charged Sports Hover coupe with a full tank of hydrofuel."

Finally, Krillin managed to untie his tongue from his surprise and almost reverently closed the case and tucked the DynoCaps away in the bag. "I can't thank you enough. Really, Bulma. You're a real pal." He managed to croak the words out, his throat suddenly tight and his eyes watering. This one case was a new life. Forget about the long term plan, both 18 and him could leave Master Roshi's island the moment he got back. Not that living with his old master and Kame House was unpleasant. It was just a little too isolated for his liking, especially now that he had a child on the way.

Back when he'd been dating Maron, that place was little a constant island vacation paradise but with the eyes of a father... There needed to be a school close by, he needed a job nearby, there was just things that Kame house provided as a bachelor that it lacked now that he was a (almost) married man. "Seriously..."

He quickly put on the satchel, strapping it over his shoulder and rushed over to his friend and gave her a hug so sudden and quick that it nearly took the woman to the floor.

Catching herself and Krillin on the Console, she laughed again. "Jeez, Don't get blubbery on me, short stuff. You aren't exactly as small as you used to be." Again, she was so caught up in the moment, she hadn't noticed the cup rattle that final half inch to tipping.  
They both noticed when the cup smashed to the bed of electronics, splashing lukewarm coffee over the entire bank of buttons and switches.  
"Oh no. No. No. NO!" Bluma spun to the console, one hand flipping off switches and the other trying to hurriedly wipe away the liquid with her sleeve of her overalls. However, it did little good. The coffee had already slipped between many small gaps provided and before the heiress got very far in shutting things down the computers began to sizzle and spark. Electricity hissed and spat over the computers surface, forcing her to snatch her hands away at the shock. "Krillin!" She snapped, pointing a hand at a far wall on the left side of the room where the computer's power cables were. "Cut the power to the computers, we have to now before-"

She was interrupted as a sound began to rise above the hissing computer. Krillin slowly looked towards the noise, his heart tap dancing in his chest and his stomach turning to knots as he realized what it's source was: the Time Machine Engine.

The block of metal began to rattle as it activated, parts jerkily starting to move like a body being electrocuted and as it began to power up, the lights began to flicker. The monk knew what was happening was bad but he didn't realize how bad it was until he saw the color leave his friend's face. Fair skin, almost the shade of milk, her fingers began to fly over the keyboard before her, in spite of the pain from the consistent shocks coming off of the computer though they were lessening as the power fluxuations began to worsen. Krillin, no longer hesitating, ran towards the pipe-sized cables that powered the supercomputers and grabbed the first of three and yanked. He didn't need any explaination why a malfuctioning Time Machine engine was a bad thing.

It came out of the wall and he quickly went to the second, glancing back to see if it had any effect. There was indeed an effect but it was far from a good one. The engine was vibrating now, the insides humming even louder than before. Bluma's eyes were locked on the screen and he could hear a constant stream of 'Come on' and 'Please' coming from her like the desperate prayer that it was. "NO!" was the response as the sparking electricity became too much for her to handle and she snatched her hands away one final time. Not that pressing buttons would do any good as the screen she was looking at winked out.

Even as he yanked the second cable, he could feel the power fluctuating through it as it vibrated through his fingers. The lights above dimmed so much that it threw the entire room into a sort of half-darkness. It was only then that he could see that the engine was starting to glow. The hum pitched higher and the monk winced as the volume spiked to a painful level. The lights went out completely and Krillin made a choice.

Just as the engine began to glow bright enough to pick up where the overhead lights failed, he ran towards Bluma with every bit of speed he had. In the span of a second, he'd grabbed the inventor by the waist and, knowing the automatic doors weren't going to open, sent a Ki blast over at the exit. The doors blew out, partially disintegrated and he charged for it.

Yet, as he turned to run he nearly was taken off his feet as something yanked at his back.

Bluma yelped as even she nearly slipped from his grasp. Quickly, he adjusted and made a break for it. He'd once tried the gravity training that Goku had told him about and right now that's what it suddenly felt like was at his back. A heavy warm hand of power pulling at him, he barely made it halfway to the door when the machinery and tools around him began sliding towards the light behind him. A sound like a cracking whip met his ears at the same time he was again nearly dragged off his feet, he knew without looking that it was Bluma's gift, the DynoCaps bag pulled taught against his progress.

The hand gripping his back slowly tightened and what had once been the start of a sprint soon became a fight for every step. He didn't see the engine behind them shaking and rattling like it was suddenly in the middle of an earthquake. But from the way Krillin held her, Bluma did. The horror of what she was seeing locked her throat and kept her from screaming out from the horror that filled every cell of her being. In the mere seconds before the monitor had winked out, she'd seen the data that told her the engine was suffering a cascading effect.

The coffee had turned it on to full power and as a result of that, it drained and was currently draining away every little bit of energy from her workshop and even the Capsule Corp. building before she'd had time to activate the failsafe. She'd told Krillin to pull the power cords but she knew now it wasn't going to do much good without the emergency deactivation. Worse, the engine was overheating because she had only just a few days ago uninstalled the cooling system thinking that that cause of the power drain.

Now, even unplugged it would be trying to spool up and, without the cooling system, overheat even more as a result. She closed her eyes, the glow of impending doom far too bright to look at. Oh God, would her family survive this if it blew? Would even West City survive?

Her eyes popped back open, when she suddenly felt herself airborne. Not in the direction of the engine but towards the door. The pull on her body was gone the moment she sailed over the threshold of her workshop. She hit the floor and rolled, facing the blasted opening of the room and got a perfect view of Krillin's shadowed silhouette, one of her closest friends and someone who she'd practically watched grow up, with his arms outstretched. The satchel strap gave a creak of leather stretched to it's limit and then snapped, the bag slamming against the engine and immediately starting to burn from the contact.

The throw was instinctual, he'd felt the grip on his body turn into a vice and he threw Bulma to get her outside of it. Even as he did so, he realized at the same time that he couldn't take another step forward the pull of gravity had gotten so strong. He looked into Bluma's eyes and hoped she wouldn't blame herself if he didn't survive this.  
Krillin didn't even get a moment to think about his family as he was given that final yank back, felt his feet separate from the floor and only had the time to power up his Ki before his vision tunneled into an almost immediate black.

Bluma's view wobbled before her as the heat began to distort the air and everything happened in slow motion. Like looking through a flexing magnifying glass, the room folded in on itself. The entire lab, from the genetics section to even the newest experimental Dyno-caps, seemed to bend as if was less a room and more like a room drawn on a sheet of paper. In the blink of an eye and a flash of black that stole the light from even the hallway she watched from, the time machine engine, it's glow, and above all, Krillin vanished.

XXX

Even with his Ki powered to it's max, Krillin felt pain. An excruciating agony tore through his body and even though he couldn't hear it, he knew he was screaming. Fire seemed to consume every single cell, his body...no, his very existence turned into one singular high note of pain. He couldn't see, he couldn't hear, he couldn't feel anything but the sensation of his very bones being taken apart yet unable to pass out. Oh, Kami for the first time in his life he truly wanted to die...yet even then whatever forces that were working on him wouldn't allow that. What he didn't know and even if he had, wouldn't have been able to process was that the implosion of the time machine engine and the sheer mathematical gravity of it was tearing him apart. Literally. It shredded his skin and and broke his bones until they were little more than splintered. His joints were stretched until they were dislocated and then slammed back into place, the sheer heat of it began to dissolve him, pulling him apart like a sweater with a loose but important thread that was unraveling his organs. It was only his Ki alone that kept his very essence from being splattered across time and space like a fly on a windshield.

In the milliseconds it took for it to happen, Krillin was little more than a mass of organic material and organs that were only loosely held together. Yet still, he didn't die. Through the ironic way the laws of any universe could pull, Earth's strongest human was, instead of being spat out the other end of this event a soon-to-be-dead pile of gristle, put back together… Every piece of organic material that was and wasn't him began to put him back as if the time and space itself was following a Lego instruction kit that happened to have the pieces scattered and mixed with another entirely different set.

So the forces...improvised.

But that didn't matter to Krillin. He didn't know how long the agony lasted...but when it finally and abruptly ended.

Then he felt nothing. A true nothing that was beyond numbness and that scared him...Even more than the pain, the nothing terrified him more than he cared to admit. Over the year of his exciting life, he'd been killed several times, more than he expected possible and in several ways he'd never want to relive.

But the worst death he'd ever experienced was the first.

After the second tournament that felt so long ago now. In all honesty, he didn't remember the blow, just the creature and that first and final flash of pain, in what could be pathetically called a fight. After the pain came the nothing, in the long almost never ending moment as his blurry vision slowly turned black, he couldn't breath, couldn't move, couldn't eve grab his throat or scream. His mind just flailed uselessly against the prison his body had become.

Then…

Finally…

...dark release.

This nothing was far too similar to that.

A groan was heard, and he felt the breath in his chest leave in time with the noise. And as if on cue, sensation slowly worked its way back into his mind. He became aware that he was on his back from a dull numbness that was locked instep with a growing buzzing in his ears that sounded like he was listening to a beehive through a long and silent tunnel.

He didn't want to move. In fact when he could finally feel them, he kept his eyes closed. Not for fear of what he might see...or even what he might not because for all he knew the explosion blinded him. No, the monk just didn't want to cause himself anymore pain by looking in right into the sun that had to be glaring down on him.

Hell, he could feel the...chill?

By now, the numbness had turned into a creeping cold and a wetness followed.

Not just from his mouth, which tasted of blood, but all over his skin...his body. He could feel a stinging biting wind slapping against his face and when he opened his eyes confusion was what filled his tired exhausted mind.

Snow. Big fat flakes of the stuff was swirling down and around him from a grey cloudy night sky that had peeks of moonlight streaming through. This wisps of steam were meeting the flakes halfway and melting them into a soft drizzle that gently soaked him even further. The wind picked up slightly and he was suddenly made aware that there was literally nothing between him and the air.

With a growing sense of dread, he steeled himself to look down and bend his neck forward. It was more to prepare for the pain that would follow because he knew, even as the feeling of the water on his skin was starting to harden, he knew very well he wasn't ready to move anything. When he looked down though, he didn't feel any pain at least not very much.

That was hardly a relief, he was naked. Completely and totally. And everything within his cone of sight told him he was far from civilization. In spite of the snow, the air was clear enough for him to see that he was on a small bare patch of land on the side of a mountain, the peak of it clear in the direction he was facing, the snow covered mass towering so far, he was certain it was close to touching the clouds lazily floating by.

He winced as he forced himself to sit up to get a better look. He was in the center of a small crater that was perfectly circular, and was filled with water nearly an inch deep and was quickly frosting over.

Surrounding him on all sides was a forest of trees, an almost unbroken line of nature fenced around him as if saying 'Do not pass.' That was until, he turned nearly behind him and saw a long streak of bare ground, being dusted over by the snow. He followed it with his eyes to a tree that looked like someone had tried to chop it down with a sledgehammer. All the trees around him were massive, bigger than most he'd ever personally seen and this one was no exception. With a trunk wider than he was tall, even with a third of the trunk caved in it barely looked ready to fall.

Well, at least he had a direction to follow. Another gust of wind was all the push he needed to stand up. It wasn't easy. Every single muscle moved jerkily not quite wanting to respond. It took two times of nearly falling flat on his face back into the water before Krillin managed to work them into holding him upright.

Reaching into himself, he pulsed his Ki to increase the blood flow to his fingers and toes. Doing so nearly took him back to his knees. The pain that had been absent had come back like a wall and slammed into him, and the monk had to grit his teeth not to cry out in pain. He pushed his energy further though. He knew that he needed to keep frost bite from setting in, and that this pain now would be nothing if he had to deal with a frozen limb. Plus, flying soaking wet into a light snow storm while trying to follow a path hidden by trees was just asking for trouble. And the smashed tree and what was behind them was all he had right now, he could tell just by the creeping empty feeling in his whole body that he didn't have any spare Ki to fly anyway and wasting it when he needed to conserve his body heat would be foolish.

As soon as he passed the tree he discovered it hadn't been smashed for no reason. Right behind it, having pulverized another tree completely in half was a distinct piece of grey stone with blue tile. A piece of the lab floor. Even with teeth slowly starting the chatter together as he forced away the cold didn't prevent him from making a small hop in joy.

"Y-yeah." He whispered for the empty air as he saw even more trenches dug into the ground through the snow and what looked like a computer screen sliced through a large blush. The lab had come with him...so maybe the DynoCap Case had made it too...

Wasting no more time and with the promise of possibly getting somewhere warm, he began a quick march, more like a lurching gait and followed the path of destruction. It was a relief when he realized that the snow wasn't as deep as he'd expected and he took stock of his situation.

He was one the side of a forested mountain, no idea which side, in the middle of the night. He was naked and had been lying in the snow for who knows how long. The explosion had clearly transported him somewhere and the only clue he had to follow was the debris that had come with him.

But was it somewhere? A shock ran through him at the thought that felt colder than the whipping wind and stopped him in misstep. It had been the Time Machine that had exploded, that could mean he could've ended up some_when_.

No. Krillin shook his head violently, sending flecks of snow and have frozen water spraying out of his hair. He couldn't think about that. Shelter first. Then figure out how screwed he was. With his search now a little more frantic, he continued to look around.

He didn't know how long he continued to walk but by the time he ended up facing what was left of the time machine engine which was steaming and clicking as it cooled against the temperature, he was exhausted. The wind blew harder with every step he made so by the time he stumbled into the clearing, he was shivering uncontrollably. The Ki drain on him had increased as well since, with the increased wind speed he needed to use more to keep frostbite at bay.

And now, having come up empty of Capsules his despair had grown. There was no way he'd survive the night without clothes and even if there was somehow a rescue on the way, he didn't have a chance to hold out without clothes at the very least.

Still, the moment he saw the engine, he made for it hoping that if it was still hot he could use that heat just a little longer. In his haste, his numbing foot caught something half buried in the ground and he tumbled face first into the snow.

Had it been any other human, that would've been it. Being covered in water and snow and slowly turning into a popsicle, that fall would have had them pass out on the spot. To fall into the dark cold embrace of the night that so wanted to claim a life before the sunrise and never wake.

But even as the ground seemed to be spinning under him, even as his blurry vision was tunneling, even as he could physically feel his grip on his Ki control falling through his mental fingers like sand, Krillin only had thoughts for 18 and their still unnamed child. He couldn't leave them like this. He wouldn't. He had a life, he was happier with 18 than he'd ever had been in his life and the joy of finding out he'd been a father had taken him to a level of joy he'd never felt before. A small traitorous part of his wanted to give up, to simply close his eyes, that the pain and even the numbness was only temper-

_**"**__**NO!"**_

With a primal scream, Krillin reached into himself grabbed his Ki with both mental hands and pulled. His body, which had been slowly going numb, felt like it had suddenly exploded into a fireball as he dug into a reserve he'd never known he had. He wasn't aware of the ice melting off his skin, all his focus was on getting to his feet and once he did, he looked down at what his foot caught on.

A silver but well beaten rectangle greeted his eyes. He quickly picked it up and opened it in the same way a man dying of thirst would a bottle of water and he practically cheered as he saw the #1 DynoCap looking back at him.

Knowing that whatever energy he had left would leave him and he wouldn't have the strength to press the button if it did, he activated and tossed it.

The POOF of the Capsule was music to his burning ears. He didn't remember much after that.

XXX

The beep of a scouter was like a whip crack in the silent air. The owner grunted in annoyance, having been stirred from sleep by the sound. It wasn't checked. The owner knew the old model scouters always had glitches and quirks and also knew that none of the planet's inhabitants had a high enough power level to register an alert. With a flick of a finger the Scouter was turned off and it's owner rolled over on the ground to get more comfortable, going to sleep with no thought of the glitch.


	2. Chapter 2

The Supreme Kai of Time paused her work in the Time Nest. She was aware the moment it happened. The weight and suddenness of it actually had her jump in surprise. Every sense of her power screaming that something major had slipped out of place and something had been inserted where it didn't belong.

The time scroll in her hand rolled up at her mental command and she was about to put in the archive to search for the disturbance when an odd sound brought her up short. It was a noise she hadn't heard in so long that it actually took several seconds for her to identify it but when she did, she quickly began to look around. The Archive room was a circular room and full to the brim with scrolls of shelves, so it didn't take much searching.

Two scrolls on opposite ends of the room were burning and that was impossible. She knew what she was seeing had to be impossible. The Time scrolls weren't just something that could be burned. She blinked dumbly at first, trying to process what she was seeing. It was only when the crackling blood red flames began to blacken the edges that she frantically reached out, dropping the scroll she had been handling and the dates flew from her lips.

"Age 736. Age 771." As if each had been waiting for her to say that, the scrolls leapt from the perches and slapped into her hands. The moment they did, the flames stopped consuming the scrolls under her power but the flames didn't go out right away. With fire licking ineffectually at her wrists, she placed both on the massive central table and opened them with a wave.

At first, each timeline looked okay with every event was playing out as per usual, until... She grabbed each one pulling the section of timeline within a foot of her face. The shock that ran through her turned to dread as she watched the divergence play out. Oh, this wasn't good.

It took no time at all to have Trunks and the Elder Kai at the table looking at the event that was causing the disturbance. The half-saiyan looked grim but the Elder Kai seemed pretty nonchalant. "While I do realize that Krillin does need to be put back into his timeline, I don't believe he played such a massive role in the Buu debacle that would cause the effect you've described," Elder Kai mumbled poking at the browned edges of the scrolls and other hand rubbing his chin.

Chronoa tried not to frown at that, though she did put her hands on her hips. The flames had gone out by the time they'd arrived, though they did spring back when she tired to use her power on them, and only the geezer would think she'd make up what she saw. "It's not Krillin we need to worry about, at least not totally. It's his wife," she snapped.

"18?" Trunks asked. Any subject that mentioned the Androids was enough to get his full attention. "What about her?"

The pink-skinned Kai, waved over the more current timeline. What stuck out to even the Elder Kai was how every scene shown was silent, the image greyed out and shaky as if being filmed on an old camera. It showed a wrecked section of Capsule Corp with Android 18 landing nearby with her usual bored expression. Another wave showed her and Bulma Briefs talking at first but as it continued the talk turned into an argument and from the matching snarls on both their faces, a nasty one. It played out, showing the Dragon Balls being gathered, Shenron being summoned, and a wish being made.

A wish that clearly wasn't granted.

It continued on like that, moment after moment of anger and failure in spite of her best efforts but as it continued the image of the future got hazier and hazier until when the the timeline came to an abrupt end none could really make out what was happening. However, one single moment of clarity before it cut was enough to put a stone into everyone's stomachs.

Even Chronoa couldn't suppress a shiver even after she'd double and triple checked it.

"Okay." Trunks said, taking a deep shuddering breath with his eyes closed. "That's even worse than I thought."

"I think ya might be underselling that a bit." The Elder said, his full attention now on the scroll. "And ya say all of...that was because of Krillin going missing?"

The Supreme Kai of Time nodded, his expression as grimm as the story they'd just witnessed. "Yes, and if that wasn't bad enough, I'm afraid her husband's fate isn't much better."

Again, she waved her hand and the passage of time began on the other scroll and again, the image was grainy and silent. It was so hard to see in fact, that it never even managed to get to the end before it was unreadable. The glimpses that were made out didn't help. Trunks and the Elder looked sick. No one spoke for awhile, then the Elder gave a low whistle. Chronoa knew it was meant to relax himself as much to lighten the mood. "Alrighty then. Let's just pluck him out and slap him back next to his wife." He began, with a snap of his fingers. "Then all this nastiness will never have happened."

"You think I haven't tried?" She asked. "Time itself tried to right this wrong and...Well, watch." She reached her power out into the timestream but the moment her power so much as moved in the direction of 18 or Krillin, the flames, now lined with black void on its edges flared up with a FOOM. Both witnesses jumped back from the table with a gasp. She cut the connection and the flames went out as if smothered with dirt. However, the damage to both scrolls had been done. The images looked even fuzzier as the scroll looked as if it had been actually dropped into a fireplace. "See?" She waved at the scrolls with a 'Look at that' gesture. "I was telling the truth."

"What was that?" Trunks, the first to speak, took a slow step to the table. "Not even Towa's power was able to damage a time scroll."

"TimeLock."

Chronoa turned to the Elder Kai, his voice and tone so grave that she'd almost believe the words came from him. Somehow, his aged face seemed to get older just from that word alone. "I've never heard of that," she said. "What's TimeLock?"

"Yeah, I've never come across that term." The half-saiyan was looking at him as well. "Not in all the time I've been here."

"I don't expect either of you to 've heard of it." The Elder Kaioshin began as he leaned over the scrolls the same way a man would lean over a bomb that had to be disarmed. "It's never been a situation that's come up until now. Never thought it would be." He sighed turning to her . "Sorry for doubting you, my dear. I've only heard about this possibility."

The Kai of Time might have actually been satisfied to get the apology but there was more to this than she knew.

"All the issues of time being messed with we've handled up to now was during events the universe could handle. Events that could be bent back into shape so long as they were corrected quickly. However there are some events that cannot be messed with under ANY circumstances. Events that, if they didn't happen, would break the universe as the very fabric of time and space would twist to compensate. Events that not even Towa or her ilk would touch for fear of ending their existence. Events like, for example: Goku being born." The statement sucked the air out of the room and the Kai of Time looked at the singed scrolls fearfully. "That is a moment in time that if it was interfered with in any way would have serious consequences."

She could have ended everything if she'd been successful in setting things right.

"And apparently, the moment of the monk's departure and arrival has become one."

But how? Why? The Kai of Time ran through every scenario that she'd experienced and learned about but unfortunately the Elder Kai was right about this situation, it had never happened before.

"How did this happen?" Her question came out a little more frantic than she would've liked but she needed answers. "How could something that was never supposed to happen suddenly become so important?"

"I don't know. The timeline must've adapted because this isn't an alternate path. Unlike when Trunks used that time machine of his, we have a main figure from the main timeline being suddenly and violently removed." The Elder Kai shook his head, watching the 736 timeline play out again. "But for now, we know that Krillin's transport to where and when he is cannot be undone. However, we can get involved and prevent the...unfortunate endings of both from coming about until we can find a fix to this. How many agents do we have on each ag-" The Kai cut off like his plug had been pulled, his eyes going wide as dinner plates.

"Chronoa, pause it. Both of you get over here. Now." He didn't look away from the image even as he waved them over. What had been worry built to panic as she hurried to the table and looked down.

Everyone watched the image, a frozen moment in time of Krillin wrapped in sheets in a bare bedroom, the edges still shimmering like a camera the couldn't keep still. It took only a moment to find what was off with the Elder's finger pointing right at it.

"But- that's..." Trunks was the first to notice it and sucked in a breath and when she did, she almost couldn't believe her eyes. Shock replaced panic and she couldn't help but stare, jaw agape.

"Now that would explain it." The Elder said. He looked at both of them and The Kai of Time finally pulling her eyes away turned to him fully as he finished his previous question. "How many agents do we have on each year? We're going to need them."

XXX

_Several hours later... West City, CapCorp HQ._

She stood in the Security room, barely listening to her father talk to one of the investigators as she stood next to the computer. She didn't sit down. She couldn't as she watched the footage of the disaster that had taken place. The security cams had been on a closed circuit and kept recording when the power had gone out.

Now she was on the fifth viewing.

Years worth of work... gone. Had Bulma been able to bring herself to care about the material at the moment, that would've been her only thought. That lab had been not only a place of research but of memories. Where her father helped her with her first invention. Where she'd built the dragon ball radar.

She couldn't, though. She couldn't bring herself to give a damn about the thousands of hours worth of research that was destroyed. Or even the fact that she knew that place down to the last tile.

One of her best friends was... dead at worst, Kami-knows-where at best and she couldn't shed anymore tears for him because she was all out. Her face felt raw and sore after all the crying she'd already done when the horrible realization of what had happened finally clicked. Now, she just needed to figure out what happened to him. What they needed were the Dragon Balls and as soon as they were done here she'd dig out the old radar and-

"Woman, I've taken care of the parasites." Vegeta's voice came from behind as he entered the room. It took the Scientist a moment to figure out what he meant before, he tossed what looked like a crushed camera over his shoulder.

Oh, the paparazzi and news crews. She'd called them that once, when they'd gone out to a fancy restaurant for her birthday. It had taken more work than she'd ever thought possible to get the Prince into a suit to be presentable for it, never mind what she had to bargain just to get him to eat properly without looking like...well, a saiyan eating.

It wasn't that she was ashamed of him, it was in fact that dominant gruff exterior that had attracted her to him in the first place. An exterior she could crack open and read like a new novel. Vegeta in his way, was lonely back then and very quick to act without thinking. Which is the wrong state to be in when a few young punks from some no-name tabloid pop out of an alley, shoving flashing cameras in your face.

Vegeta what thought they were being attacked and damn near killed one of them with a Ki blast before she'd him to stand down. That night had been shot and 'CapCorp Ubermensch Bodyguard Project' had been on so many covers of those rags that week. That experience put the hate of Kami into Vegeta for cameras and those behind them. So he made a point to come along whenever she went out and he wasn't training to bash a few lenses.

"You didn't hurt anyone?" She asked, mostly as a reflex instead of with any real concern. Anyone idiot who crossed a police cordon to get in here deserved to get a nice faceful of her husband as a consequence.

Vegeta made a hmph sound and looked away. Translated from Prince speak: 'No, wish I did though.' Trunks coming in behind his dad, who would still have a few more years before he fully understood his father's unique grunts and growls, answered however.

"No, he didn't. Scared the crap out of one of them." He said, a giant bright grin on his face. "One of them wet himself when he crushed the camera."

"Are you better now?" Her prince had asked this question on and off, since he'd found her on her knees, sobbing and unable to speak in front of what was left of the lab. It was asked with the usual crossed arms and hard stare but again it meant something different. 'Are you okay?'

"Yep. Doing fine." She put on the best smile she could manage. Whatever good feeling she managed to scrape up to do so left her as another set of voices came from down the hall.

"Ma'am, you can't come in here." That was either CapCorp Security or a West City officer, the statement was followed by some scuffling and a grunt.

The voice that answered was unmistakable. "You couldn't stop me at the door and you can't stop me now, so why don't you sit there and stay out of my way?"

Bulma froze in the place and so did the footage, canceling out and winking back to a live feed. She hadn't even been aware that she'd pressed the button to close it out. But now the screen showed the grounds where West City's finest and Capsule Corp Security collaborating to fence off the area where the lab...her lab had been. She hadn't realized it when it happened but the unfinished timemachine had sucked in the entire section. Save for about a yard of blue tile, everything else was gone. A massive chunk was just gone from the main building, perfectly cut from it and far into the ground as if someone had taken the finest shovel and scooped it out right into the foundation.

Her step was as distinct as her voice. A click of hard soles on tile so consistent and measured that you could set your watch to it. The heiress actually caught herself counting. 8 footsteps in the hall, then a bored voice. "Where is he?"

It was a general question, one aimed at the room more than anyone specific with the expectation that someone was going to answer. Even so, it still brought a weight down on her shoulders as if it had been a condemnation thrown at her.

"18," She greeted, turning to face her. Guards in the room moved to intercept but were brought up short as she quickly waved them away. When she saw her, the inventor was struck on just how unchanged the woman features with piercing blue eyes and blonde hair tucked behind one ear that didn't look like it had grown an inch in all this time. She was even wearing almost the exact same outfit of jeans, white shirt, black vest and gloves that she'd been in the last time they'd personally met on the Lookout. From the looks of things, she hadn't aged a day. In any other circumstance, Bulma would've been slightly jealous. "Why are you here?"

"Why do you think I'm here? I'm picking up my boyfriend." She said, casually. There was a fond half-smirk on her strangely ageless face as she moved her head around to look for someone who wasn't here."I know him well enough that he would've beelined it here if he thought there was trouble and from the look of things, something massive happened." The smirk sharpened to a knife's edge when her eyes fell on Vegeta. "What? Did his highness break that gravity thing again?"

It was clearly meant to be a joke for the room and jab at the Saiyan's infamous reputation with the Gravity Chamber which had followed him.

Her already heavy-heart sunk further and she found it impossible to look the Android in the eye. Her reluctance must've shown because she could feel 18's eyes stop on her, with a confused frown. Vegeta not rising to the clearly laid out bait had probably been strike two. The silence that followed didn't help. For nearly 30 seconds, by her count, no one spoke, Vegeta looked like he'd swallowed something sour, Trunks, while unaware of the details of what had happened beyond something 'bad' read the room well enough to keep his mouth shut. Even her father had stopped talking with the officer to stare at the unfolding situation.

Her mother finally jumped in when the tension was reaching a breaking point. "Uhm...18 it's good to see you. But we're kind of in the middle of a situation as you can see." It was a deflection so obvious that even Bulma even caught Vegeta wincing out of the corner of her eye. She wanted to shake her head because her mother while not stupid, had the subtlety of an elephant charging through a glass house. 18 didn't narrow her eyes at that but they sharpened to knife edges as her question was repeated. "Where is he?" It was hissed in a lowered voice, but the threat and menace behind the words was filled with enough poison to drop several dinosaurs. This time when she looked around, her eyes were dissecting everyone present searching for Krillin.

"18…" The Heiress began. "Your-" She almost said husband before quickly correcting herself. "Krillin isn't here." Even though she tried so hard to keep her voice level, it cracked slightly and trembled.

"What?" Her ever hardening gaze fell on her again and she had never felt so small in her life. She'd faced Vegeta at his worst on Namek. Seen Goku turn into an Ape twice. Watched Raditz take down Goku with a single shot while taking about genocide so casually that he might as well have been taking about removing a rat problem from a house. And even in her younger days, she'd looked down the barrel of guns that weren't half as loaded with threat as the Android's solid expression as she moved towards her, her movements smooth and precise and stiffly angry. "Where is he then?"

This time Vegeta's stance tightened, and he took a half-step that put him solidly between the two of them. "Back off." He warned.

Trunks followed his father's lead and also took a protective position in front of his mother and upped the ante by raising his Ki. "Leave my mom alone."

For a moment, Bulma's shock matched the look of surprise on 18 face but she quickly interjected, cutting the situation off at the pass before something happened that everyone would regret, she tapped Vegeta on the shoulder. "Honey, it's okay." She moved around him so that she had a clear path and line of sight to blonde, something that Vegeta clearly wasn't happy with by the way he clicked his tongue. "I hate to tell you this, 18. But Krillin's gone." She held back the wince as she watched 18's eyes, with the slow inevitability of an avalanche, come back to focus on her and she quickly continued before the Android had time to ask another question. "It's better if I show you what happened so I can better explain."

Taking a deep breath, she moved back to the keyboard and prepared herself for one of the hardest conversations in her life. Everyone's attention was on her and all of her attention was solely on 18 and the screen, so no one noticed as a certain secretary listened in, leaning against the wall just next to the open security room door.

Suzy Starbright eavesdropped for as long as she could get away with and then left the premises. After making her way outside and avoiding the reporters, who were quite desperately trying to shove a microphone in the face of anyone leaving the building. The moment she was clear an alerting beep came from her bag. Quickly, she picked up the pace of her walk until she found an empty alley. Making sure she was in far enough in order to not be overheard or seen, the human woman tucked herself in the space between two dumpsters and pulled out a scouter from her purse and put it on. The red lensed communicator booted up right away and, once she took a moment to make sure she organized the facts in her mind, pressed the button. "Partoller Starbright reporting."

"Ah, Good." The Supreme Kai of Time's voice came in clearly. "We need you back at the Time Nest. I think you know why."

"I do," She responded, pressing the button on her Scouter. "Coming in now."

A dull blue-white glow covered her body and the phantom of circles followed it. It took less than a second and even if there had been someone close enough to notice it, the flash of light would've been gone and the person it carried through time with it.

With Suzy gone, she completely missed the events that followed and the pulse of power that flowed through the air. The energy wasn't Ki, it was less substantial and couldn't have been detected by anyone who belonged to the current time. Invisible and insubstantial, it drifted directionless like a feather in the wind, it's goal only a few blocks away. A force of nature that had worked over a certain Monk floated and twisted at the whim of...something even further away.

It's destination?

An Android who was getting the worst news in her life.

The entire room was as silent as the footage playing on the screen and 18 could feel every eye in the room on her watching for the smallest reaction like she was a wild animal on a fraying leash. She didn't care, couldn't bring herself to care because she'd gone numb. A powerful nothing creeped over her body like a dense fog rolling in off the coast and covered every nerve in cloying cold empty that she wouldn't be able to shake off if she tried.

She'd known in the back of her mind that something had been wrong when Krillin failed to return from what was a simple hour and a half long errand. So when she'd arrived in West City ready to hit up every CapCorp shop in the area to track him down, she'd heard the news about something bad happening at the Headquarters.

Something bad did happen because when she'd arrived to the place it was with activity like a kicked beehive.

She'd hadn't really cared. The Brief family was so rich they could've rebuilt this whole place 6 times over and not ever feel their bank accounts creak but her noble and loyal to a fault Fiance was just the kind of man to run off towards trouble, especially if it was for a friend. Even if he was outclassed.

She fully expected to see him with the group, a stupid smile on his face that would get nervous in that cute way of his when she arrived. Then he'd start fussing over her, asking if she was okay and if the baby was okay, and probably offer to carry her back to Kame House without thinking about her unlimited power supply.

She might have considered taking him up on the offer…

But Krillin's absence had turned from an inconvenience to be fixed to a worry to a impossible-to-ignore hammering question that needed an answer RIGHT NOW. An answer that the Heiress was being far too slow to provide. An answer that was making what she had as a heart sink when was trying to deflect her attention so obviously that it forced her partially electronic mind to jump from frustrated to furious in the span of a second.

So when Bulma gave her a non-answer to a question that she'd asked twice, her already shortened patience was cut even further. She moved towards the inventor, ready to get in her face to make the point that she wanted a straight answer to a simple question but was brought up short by Vegeta and his kid.

Then Bluma cut in, stopping any chance that a fight could break out. And with no preamble, showed her the video.

Now...now she didn't know what to think as her partially mechanical mind struggled to process what she was seeing. The rest of her senses weren't having any trouble. She could count the decibel level in the room.

So tense. So quiet. So very...opposed to what was happening on the grounds, with investigators and security making so much noise just outside the room. Every person's position in the room was accounted for right down to the inch but the inability to understand the sight of her boyfriend, her husband, the father of her child, being sucked into a glowing light made certain subroutines activate to check her diagnostics.

"I will make this right, 18. I promise," It took milliseconds for her diagnostics to give her an all clear but, again she found herself unable to understand and by the time she realized it was the inventor who was talking, Bulma continued. "We can find the Dragon Balls and-"

"-wish him back to life?" The Android finished numbly, her electronic mind perfectly going back to the moment that Krillin and his friends had tired to wish Goku back. "How?"

The Heiress looked confused for a moment, not quite understanding. 18 knew Bulma wasn't slow and when her eyes got as wide as dinner plates, she seemed to finally clue in to the implication. "Oh…" She finished, her voice trembling and her eyes moistening. "We…" Her words cracked with emotion and she had to swallow to start over. "We don't know if he's dead."

Vegeta surprisingly figured it out as well because a sharp curse left his lips. "For all we know, he's-"

18 swung around so quickly that she hadn't realized she'd done it, the empty insider her filling up with a sudden anger so quickly it overflowed. "Fucking shut up," She hissed at Vegeta. The Android had never liked the Saiyan but during that whole fiasco with Cell her dislike turned into a deep hatred. For Krillin's sake, she'd put her feelings on the Prince to the back burner but now just hearing his voice was enough to tow those emotions back to the front. Her mind was buzzing and it "Was I talking to you, Vegeta? No! I was talking to the person who got my husband _KILLED._"

Bulma staggered back as if she'd been stuck. "Th-That's not fair, 18." She began to defend herself but 18, never taking her eyes off the Prince, cut her off.

"He died to save your life."

Vegeta's ever frowning face, frowned even harder. "You watch your mouth, Machine." The Saiyan spat, arms uncrossing. A deliberate threat was in that motion but the Android didn't care. "Or what?"

Bluma moved to get in between the two of them, arms spread. "We don't know he's dead yet. We should at least gather the Dragon Balls and try to wish him back first."

The blonde now focused all her attention on the woman, her expression cold and chilling by the second. "If you truly believed that then you would've told me what happened as soon as I asked the first time. Instead, you have your mother try to divert my attention and then you can't even spit it out when I ask where he is at first more than 'He's not here.' That sounds like you were planning to lie to me."

"What? No!" Bulma's denial at the accusation was as quick and sharp as her tone. An Angry look crossing her face. "Do you think that was easy for me? To tell you of all people what happened?" Angry and sad tears began running down her face. "I know what he means to you. Like what Vegeta means to me, I-"

**"DON'T!"** 18 growled, wielding every following word like a hammer. **"YOU! EVER! COMPARE! KRILLIN! TO! THAT!"** Of all things that could've been said, mentioning Vegeta was furthest from the right one. **"BASTARD!"**

"Excuse me?!"

"You're fucking excused." 18 said, looking back to the Saiyan with such loathing in her eyes. She knew she was digging herself into a hole, that she needed their help but...she was just so ANGRY! Angry enough to do something stupid if she didn't get out of here right now. She spun on her heel and marched for the door. "I've had enough of this. I'm going to find the Dragon Balls myself."

A gloved hand came down on her shoulder and brought her up short as if the wall of the room itself had reached out and yanked. Slowly, she turned to look at Vegeta, who was looking angry enough to spit , he even opened his mouth 18 pivoted and threw an uppercut for his gut. Normally, 18 would've been blocked and she in the rational part of her mind, knew this. Vegeta had been so much stronger than Cell before the asshole had let that...that monster eat her, strong enough to take her apart then and especially now. But him touching her snapped away the last bit of self control she'd had and she'd attacked without thinking.

She could see with her heightened senses slowing everything down, the Saiyan's free hand already in moving place to block her swing.

It was that moment that the energy struck the Android and changed the inevitable into the impossible.

18 watched her own fist speed up as if pushed from behind and crash into Vegeta's blocking palm...only to push his hand back and slam both limbs into his stomach hard enough to raise him up off the ground a good foot.

The Saiyan's surprise was complete and he fell to his knees the moment his feet went back to the floor, vomiting.

"Vegeta!"

"Dad!"

18 didn't let her own shock freeze her. She took to the air and flew straight through the ceiling and out the building. She flew away as fast as she could, the energy that had influenced her starting a subroutine in her mind to remind her that Bulma wasn't the only one with a dragon radar.

XXX

_It was a calm night at Kame House. In fact, Krillin wasn't sure if there had ever been a calmer night since he'd started living here. It was cool, the breeze providing just enough chill to cool down but not make being in a pair of trunks uncomfortable. The stars above were bright and clear against the sky, a black canvas filled with thousands of dots The crash of the surf against the island shore brought in that little bit of extra salt in the air and he took in a deep breath to taste it all the better. Even in the island paradise that was Master Roshi's little slice of the world, it was rare for night like this to happen. Roshi had even made sure the lights were out in the house at his request to make sure that nothing interrupted the clear bright moonlit night._

_But with all that, he knew that this perfect moment would be nothing, absolutely nothing without 18 leaning against him as they reclined together in a hammock and watched the sky. Wearing a simple black two-piece bikini and with her skin very much in contact with his own, he felt content and giddy all at the same time. He couldn't think of anyone else on the planet he'd rather be with._

_Or off the planet, now that he thought about it. He shifted slightly in their embrace not exactly uncomfortable but suddenly reminded that his girlfriend soon to be wife was strong enough to take down Frieza... ain't that a trip?_

_"Stop moving." A grunt of annoyance came from her as the hammock swung a little from his movement. "You'll tip us out."_

_"Sorry, Honey." He said, letting himself relax back into it. "Just thinking."_

_"Well, then stop thinking or you'll tip us out."_

_For a moment, he did stop thinking. He just sighed and leaned into her body. The body of the woman he loved, the woman that was going to give him children, the woman who chose him to start a family with, the woman who-_

_A rather firm pat on his cheek was enough to bring him out of this thoughts. "Huh?" He looked over to 18, who had a disapproving look on her face._

_"You're thinking." She said. "So what's bothering you?"_

_He was about to open his mouth and say 'Nothing' but the lie must have shown on if face even before he said it because her look hardened. Well, might as well go for the whole thing. "I was wondering why you're with me." He stated. "Why you want to start a family with me, I mean? You've never really told me."_

_She gave him a look that said, 'That's what this is about? Really?' and looked ready to scoff. "I'm serious, 18." he said cutting of the reproach that was coming. "You're beautiful, perfect, hot in every way. You could have anyone you'd want eating out the palm of your hand. Why pick me?"_

_In the past when he'd asked that question, Krillin had gotten barely an acknowledgement but for the first time, he wasn't dismissed out of hand and 18's face looked thoughtful as she stared at him. Then he eyes got hard and her eyes got a look he'd never seen in them before, her body going unnaturally still in the way that she did when she was on her way to a bad mood. For a moment, he was certain she was going to dismiss him again before she made a long deep sigh. "You're stable."_

_"What?" Krillin wasn't sure her heard right. "I'm a soon to be ex-bachelor living out of his old master's house with barely two zeni to rub together. Stability isn't exactly my middle name or even my last."_

_She looked at him like she thought he was an idiot and rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, paused and her full lips pressed into a thin line, then looked at him with such an intense gaze that the goosebumps that ran along his skin had nothing to do with the air._

_Her hand, which had gone back to his chest, slowly climbed up to his neck to cup his chin. The grip was firm and clearly meant to get his attention. "I'm about to tell you something very personal and I won't repeat myself, understand?"_

_Krillin nodded, unable to think of anything to say in response. The ocean surf and the breeze had perfect dramatic timing as both seemed to quiet down at her statement._

_Letting go of his face, 18 relaxed slightly and looked back to the sky as she began to speak. "I...My brother and I are orphans. We were both left on the doorstep of Crystal Creek Care in the middle of the night baskets with notes taped on them. Each one had a different word that became our names. No last names, of course." She chuckled bitterly at that last sentence. "Couldn't' get more fairytale than that but life wasn't going to be that kind to us." She sighed deeply as she continued to say more to Krillin than he'd ever heard in years of knowing her. "We were inseparable and because of that we never got adopted. All the adults that came either wanted a boy or a girl and we adamantly refused to be separated because...well, we were all that the other had really. Going off with strangers we'd never met...Wasn't going to happen without the both of us. This...frustrated the Matron there. She was a bitter old hag, who treated everybody but herself poorly. " She closed her eyes as if reading the words from the inside of her eyelids. "She'd always say to us 'The two a you're trouble. Ain't gotta drop of good blood in ya. Yer mother was a whore and yer no account bastard of a father left ya here ta mooch off me.' Or something like that."_

_That brought him up short, he couldn't imagine someone saying something so cruel to a child and the fact it had been said to his wife made it all the worse. "That's awful." Krillin said before catching himself._

_If the blonde minded, she didn't show it. Instead she shrugged. "That was one of the tamer things she'd bellow in our faces. Everyone got some of her spit and fire but the longer we went un-adopted the more she focused on us. I will admit she almost got to us because for the longest time we actually thought she KNEW our parents. But when we figured out she didn't and even if she did she'd probably wouldn't tell us we actually stopped caring." Another sigh left her. "Anyway she gave us reason not to be around the orphanage and eventually we started getting into trouble for fun. Loitering, jaywalking, shoplifting. All the kind petty stuff that won't get you hard time."_

_This time when she chuckled it was much warmer, though Krillin found it a little disturbing that his girlfriend saw her past criminal life as nostalgic. "We became a nuisance around town and a constant one at that. We spent so much time in the holding cells that we got to know the local winos on a first name basis. Eventually, as most things do, we reached a tipping point. The town was sick of us, everyone was well...done with giving us our second chances. The Matron had finally had enough and threatened to put us on the street and leave us to the cops and juvie. That woman never made idle threats. So we made a plan that day to steal her car, leave town and never look back. The hag had a silver coupe that 17 always had an eye for. Hell, I don't even care about cars but I'd wanted a turn to drive it." She spoke almost dreamily as she slowly raised her arm to the sky, her fingers curling as if around a steering wheel. "But we never got a chance."_

_The monk almost didn't want to ask but as the silence stretched on he found he had no choice. "W-what happened?" He asked, nervously._

_18 blinked as if coming out of a trance and her fingers tightened into a fist. "Gero." The name was spit out with such hatred that a chill ran up Krillin's spine. "Don't even know how he got us. One second, my brother and I are making up our plan in the park in the middle of the damn day, the next... I'm waking up next to 17 in a clear glass cell in a cave somewhere, my head swimming and my mouth dry. And from then on the good doctor had us at his mercy."_

_"Actually," She paused thinking for a moment. "That. That is what you must remember Krillin, if nothing else. The sick bastard had us completely at his mercy." She hissed, her tone more serious than he'd ever heard from her._

_Having been at the mercy of more monsters than he'd like to admit, Krillin wanted to sympathize but it was clear by the way that 18 was speaking that this was far different than any experience he could pull from and as 18 continued, he was quickly made aware of the horror she went through._

_"And bit by bit, one by one, he stripped away freedoms from us, things I couldn't even imagine being taken away. And I don't mean imprisonment because that was a given since, what he planned to do with us, no one sane would willingly volunteer for. No, it was his actions and reactions to things we would do. The first freedom snapped away was the freedom of movement. At first, he left us in the cells and didn't tell why he'd kidnapped us, only bringing us out for physical examinations but Gero was a talker. You couldn't pay that man to shut up. Something tells me that if he could've killed Goku by not talking, he would screw the pooch. Anyway, he let it slip to 17 what he planned to use us for and 17 told me. My reaction was the same as his. Hell fucking No."_

_She started off slow, but now her voice was angry and words jetted from her lips as if she couldn't spit them out fast enough. "The doctor made sure that we knew we couldn't escape so 17 tried to hang himself off the bed. Didn't work. Probably had a camera in there watching us because he pumped gas in there to knock us out. When I wake up I can't move anything from the neck down. I felt tubes, waste tubes and intravenous drips to make sure I didn't starve or dry out. I couldn't turn my head but I could hear 17 was to my right cursing up a storm. And that was the cause of our loss of freedom number two: Speech. We'd cursed at Gero during his process of 'Upgrading us' as he called it and by the time he'd had enough we'd run out of vile stuff and had been making stuff up. So...I wake up one day and I can't speak and there is a pain in my throat that burns like fire and that was the last time I heard my brother's voice for nearly the rest of the time we were in that hellhole. Gero bragged to us later that he took our vocal chords out and that if we were good he might give them back."_

_She continued, her voice only slightly trembling. Krillin could feel her go still against him. It was one of the things that reminded him that she wasn't totally human anymore. If she was ever deep in thought or during the rare moments when her emotions got the best of her, she could go into a statuesque stance, her body so unnaturally solid that it was obvious that no human no matter how hard they tried could be so still without being dead._

_"From there, he violated us to a level that- In short, I've never felt so weak in my life. Never. Not once. I was a helpless, vulnerable, teenage girl and I didn't know which God I pissed off to deserve this. And everyday, as I laid on a always cold metal table in pain after limbs were augmented or cut out and replaced, crying myself to sleep every night, I'd somehow convinced myself that it couldn't get any worse... Then it did. The last freedom Gero ever got from us, one I never thought could be taken and found out was a luxury then, was the ability to sleep, to pass out if the pain was too much. That was the clincher. After that every day was just one long torture session, unable to get away even in my own mind, and just sitting there to wait as the sick bastard got back to continue. And he never took away the pain."_

_Her fist clenched even harder to the point the monk could hear the joints in them wirr just a little. "That's why we wanted him dead. Gero, in his arrogance, thought we were trying to kill him because of a glitch in our programming as if you could simply wipe away our level of loathing with a few keystrokes. I even remember the day he programed the kill order on Goku and he tried so hard to shift our hatred over to him." She laughed, a wheezing note that left her lips in a way that made in clear that it was more a reaction than any good feeling. "But he couldn't, while we planned on killing Goku to satisfy our programing the only one we wanted truly dead was that man..." She faded, her hand unclenching as she relaxed and her body loosened up against him. "It was so satisfying to see that man's head pop like a grape under 17's foot. I only wish I'd been the one to do it. I'd have made it slow."_

_She raised both hands this time and mimed the coming together slowly like a trash compactor. "I'd have looked him in the eye, made sure he knew that he'd not only failed to make me his toy, but that the reason why I was killing him was for what he did to me." The hands came closer together an inch. "I'd want him to taste the fear I felt." Another inch. "To see that realization come over him that he was the one at my mercy." Another inch. "I'd watch that braincase of his crack and splinter." Another inch. "I'd want to see the hopelessness in his eyes as it hit him he was going to die at my hands." Another inch. "And only then, once I could see it set in-" She clapped her hands together with the sound of a gunshot. "Would I kill him."_

_Her declaration sent another chill through Krillin. Suddenly the whole situation he'd witnessed was brought into a new skin crawling light. He'd been stunned by the ruthlessness of the Androids as they'd casually crushed Gero in front of them. He'd been certain it was because of their programming or even just an idle 'Because we can' reason that the powerful monsters he'd seen over his life had when they killed those at their mercy._

_But...no. This had been revenge of a type that had been a long time coming. A type of revenge that not even the most uptight moralist could turn the other cheek at. Kidnapped, tortured and turned into death machines for the sole purpose of one man's revenge against Goku. Years of their lives stolen, innocence of a sort taken, and in its place-_

_That put things into context now. Sure, they were the bad guys in Trunks timeline but they were also angry scarred teens, who had a whole lot of anger and a world to wring by the throat for it._

_Yet for all that he'd learned. That 18 had clearly struggled to share, he still didn't understand. He wasn't sure how to phrase the question but since he'd asked for it he might as well keep going. "But what does this have to do with me?" As soon as he said it, he cringed. That had come out so...selfish sounding. And from the way 18 tightened up against he was certain she was going to get up and kick him into the ocean._

_Instead, she looked at him like she'd just realized her boyfriend was a talking slug instead of a human and scoffed. "Everything. Out of a life that gave me nothing. That took and took and took and took until I had nothing left to take and then took that, you showed me mercy."_

_The emotion in her eyes hit him like a truck and as she adjusted herself to loom over him, her hair dangling low enough to brush his cheeks as she leaned in he could feel what she said in his heart. "You. Had no reason to spare me that day. I gave you none. As a matter of fact, you had every reason not to. Vegeta was haggling me over to Cell like a piece of meat and my brother and I had pounded your friends into the dirt. I was certain that you holding that remote was the last thing I'd ever see. But when you smashed it... Then when you couldn't wish your best friend back, you tried to turn me back into human being. And even when that didn't work, you took away the truly last sword hanging over my neck: The bomb inside me. You showed me that your mercy, your kindness wasn't a conditional thing but a constant stable thing. Maybe a few people would've done one thing or another. Maybe someone else might have crushed the remote. Maybe someone else might have wished for me to be human. Maybe someone else might have taken the bomb out of me. But I can't think of any damn person on this planet who would've done all three for me."_

_She placed a gentle palm on his cheek, running the hand slowly, sensually, down his face to his neck, and over his chest, each second of her touch running a thrilling buzz through his skin. "And yes, you're right. There are probably a metric ton of sugar daddies out there who'd pay out their asses for a trophy wife who can't age. But if you'd think I'd whore myself out to the one with the fattest bank account you don't really know me. You want to know why I'd start a family with you? Because any child would be Kami damned blessed to have such a selfless, caring man as a father. Because I know you care for me by who I am, not what I look like. Because you're such an insecure idiot that needs a bit of whipping up into shape from me. Because where you lack in height you more than make up for in bed."_

_Krillin was certain that the rush of blood running to his face was going to cause his head to explode. But when the blonde finished, he heard nothing else, felt nothing else but her._

_"Because I love you and I'm reminded everyday how lucky I am to have met you." She sighed deeply and with it the softness in her eyes tempered a little. "And now, if you don't kiss me after I just poured my heart out to you like we're in some bad romance movie I will literally kick your ass off this island and back."_

_He did kiss her and it was the softest most passionate kiss he'd ever received and he moved his hands up to hold her clo-_

Krillin groaned as a light pulled him out of the memory, a dim line of sunshine firing into his eyes. At first he was confused, but as the memories from last night creeped to the front of his brain. There were a few gaps near the end, he didn't remember entering the house, nor did he remember getting into bed and curling into so many sheets he was sweating at the moment.

Considering at the time, he'd been fighting for his life drawing up a blank on how he got in the bed was a small price to pay

He was sheltered and warm and was a miracle itself and he intended to take full advantage of it.

He could hear the hum of the heater which had probably been working overtime all night. Sluggishly, he rolled in the bed from his stomach to his side and groaned again as his muscles strongly argued against further movement. While nothing compared to the pain last night, every fiber of his body ached to the bone. The pain was so deep that he was actually trembling even as he tried to relax, as if he had a cold. Shivering, he curled deeper into the sheets wishing for a senzu bean.

But he already had been gifted two blessings by Kami. First: having survived that trip here which should've killed him, he was certain and Second: having lasted long enough naked and wet in freezing weather to find at least one DinoCap intact enough to use.

He wasn't expecting a third. Still, it didn't stop him from wanting one single senzu. It would take the edge off the pain at the very least and maybe he wouldn't be so...hungry.

Krillin frowned, his face being the only part of him that didn't feel like it had been poked full of holes. He was hungry. So badly in fact that one of the stabbing pains he was feeling had to be his stomach. When was he last time he'd eaten? Probably more than a day by his estimation.

Even so, he didn't want to get up. Food could wait until later when he actually didn't expect to fall to pieces because of a sneeze. Still, his stomach grumbled and beat against his desire not to move. He didn't know how long he resisted it but he found himself wrapping the sheets around his body and slowly sliding off the bed to his feet. It was at that moment he realized how dirty he was. Dried mud and twigs that he'd been too exhausted, cold, and in pain to noticed flaked off his back and the sheets, crumbles of the stuff pattering to the floor. As soon as he'd gotten some food he was going to take a bath.

He pushed the pain and the discomfort of the mess clinging to him to the back of his mind and as he stood, took in the details of the room. The place was well equipped but barren at the same time. There was a dresser next to the door, end tables on each side of the bed with lamps, and thin but nicely embroidered curtains but it was very... vacant. Clearly a new house that lacked that lived in feel. He checked the dresser and closet on the off chance that there might have been something to wear but he wasn't surprised to find them both empty. He'd guessed that 18 and he would've needed bring their own clothes, at least.

However, seeing a phone on the wall just outside the door lifted his spirits a little. Capsule houses had satellite phones that came as standard, which meant he could call for help seeing as a rescue party had yet to show up. The hope in his heart faded just as quick when he picked up the phone and heard the disconnect sound.

"Damn." He hissed and he hung it up. Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy. He moved to walk down the hall and stumbled, his foot catching something that clattered across the hardwood floor in response. The Capsule Case that had saved his life skittered down the hall and came to a rest near the end that led to the front living room. Making his way over to it, he picked it up and opened it. Surprisingly enough, most of the DynoCaps were still intact, some though reflected the abuse that the case went through. He'd take time to check them later but what he knew for certain was that not one of the Capsules was numbered for clothes.

So at that disappointment, he left the hall, went through the living room and into the kitchen, expecting it to be just as barren. Yet to his surprise, when he opened the fridge it was full near to bursting with food. Vegetables, fruit, milk and in the freezer was meats and sausages. The cupboards were also stuffed with cereals, dried and canned food, with plates and bowls and cups right next to them. The very sight of it all nearly had Krillin in tears. When he got back to West City, Bulma was going to get anything she wanted from him. Anything within his power, he'd do.

His stomach at the sight of it all growled audibly enough to get his attention, pleading with him to just grab as much as he could and just... With a deep breath, he forced his self control into line. As much as he wanted to, he knew he could just stuff himself, not while he wasn't fully recovered. Doing so would probably have him sick and then it would just be wasted food if he puked it up. He needed something light.

Oatmeal. That would be prefect. Oatmeal and fruit. Luckily, everything was working perfectly. From the gas stove to the sink, which at first he's worried that the pipes had frozen and soon, he had a small pot of oatmeal boiling on the stove.

It wasn't easy to cook when you're wearing mud streaked bedsheets as clothing but he'd had some lazy mornings in his life and had been able to avoid making a mess. However, he began to worry. Not about his situation but about himself. The hunger had, within ten minutes and at the sight of the oatmeal almost being done, grown. It was to the point that he'd strongly considered eating it right out of the pot while it was still boiling.

It was a relief when the oatmeal was done and he quickly put it into a bowl and grabbed an apple out of the fridge. Mouth watering, he took a quick hot spoonful as he went over to the table and dropped into the seat-

His mind went blank. Pain rushed up his back and slammed into his brain, every muscle locked up and the food slipped from fingers that suddenly couldn't grip. Panic raced through him as the horrible thought that he might have just set off a vital injury he hadn't felt until now. As the bowl smashed to the floor, gravity soon took hold of him and he slipped off the chair and crashed to the floor.

The moment he did, he took in a deep breath able to finally catch a lungful of air as he writhed in sheer agony. Every part of him hurt again from the impact but the source of whatever had done... whatever to him, was throbbing the most.

Carefully, he got to his feet and pulled off his sheets, running his hands down his back to the source. He fully expected to feel something lodged in his spine or some kind of swelling that would suggest some kind of wound, but when his fingers brushed up against something... furry at near the base of his back he was confused at first. Until what was attached to his spine twitched in response to his touch. Suddenly, he could feel it. It's thickness, it's length, and it's slow curling movement at being sat on.

His heart stuttered and he quickly made for the bathroom. His reflection looked back at him, face pale. Naked, the sink protected his modesty but couldn't hide the brown furry tail that seemed to wave back at him as he stared. It curled around to hover inches away from his face.

Slowly, he cupped the limb in trembling hands and felt the fur through his fingers and his fingers running through his fur. He brought it closer, able to feel his breath on the fur as he did so…

This was real. He had a tail...

It was at that moment he fainted.


End file.
